Assessment of Spirometric Indices in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Imam Hussein Hospital, Shahroud, Iran (2016-2017)

Background: Diabetes mellitus is the most prevalent metabolic disorder. Previous related studies have shown that, lungs are target organs in diabetic micro-angiopathy. The present study was designed to investigate the spirometric indices in patients with type 2 diabetes referred to the outpatient clinic of Imam Hussein hospital in Shahroud, Iran. Method: This comparative study included 50 patients with type 2 diabetes and 50 non-diabetic subjects who were matched in terms of weight, age, and sex, and were referred to the Diabetes clinic of Imam Hussein hospital in Shahroud, Iran. MIR SPIROLAB III spirometer was used for spirometric tests to obtain FEV1, FVC, PEFR, and FEF 25-75. Decrease in these indices is determinant of pulmonary complications. Indices were compared between two groups. The relationships between some variables like glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and type of their treatment with the severity of spirometric disturbances were also assessed. Result: The average age was equal to 56.3 years old (with SD of 6.3 years) and 58.3 years old (with SD of 6.3 years), respectively in non-diabetic and diabetic group. Comparison of the FEV1, FVC, PEFR, and FEF 25-75 indices between diabetic and non-diabetic groups showed a significant difference (P.V<0.05). No significant difference was found in the FEV1/FVC ratio. According to the Pearson correlation formula, there was a significant association between decreased spirometric indices and increased concentration of Hb A1C (-.630, -.635 and-.374 for FEV1, FVC, and PEFR, respectively). There was no association between decreased concentration of FEV1/FVC and increased HbA1c. Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that, there was a significant decrease in pulmonary functions in the diabetic group. Impaired pulmonary function can be detected in early stages of diabetes and studying the pulmonary function can be easily preformed. Accordingly, screening lungs function should be carried out regularly, as well as integrating in other routine examinations and screening tests. &nbsp

Assessment of Spirometric Indices in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in Imam Hussein Hospital, Shahroud, Iran (2016-2017)

Background: Diabetes mellitus is the most prevalent metabolic disorder. Previous related studies have shown that, lungs are target organs in diabetic micro-angiopathy. The present study was designed to investigate the spirometric indices in patients with type 2 diabetes referred to the outpatient clinic of Imam Hussein hospital in Shahroud, Iran. Method: This comparative study included 50 patients with type 2 diabetes and 50 non-diabetic subjects who were matched in terms of weight, age, and sex, and were referred to the Diabetes clinic of Imam Hussein hospital in Shahroud, Iran. MIR SPIROLAB III spirometer was used for spirometric tests to obtain FEV1, FVC, PEFR, and FEF 25-75. Decrease in these indices is determinant of pulmonary complications. Indices were compared between two groups. The relationships between some variables like glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and type of their treatment with the severity of spirometric disturbances were also assessed. Result: The average age was equal to 56.3 years old (with SD of 6.3 years) and 58.3 years old (with SD of 6.3 years), respectively in non-diabetic and diabetic group. Comparison of the FEV1, FVC, PEFR, and FEF 25-75 indices between diabetic and non-diabetic groups showed a significant difference (P.V<0.05). No significant difference was found in the FEV1/FVC ratio. According to the Pearson correlation formula, there was a significant association between decreased spirometric indices and increased concentration of Hb A1C (-.630, -.635 and-.374 for FEV1, FVC, and PEFR, respectively). There was no association between decreased concentration of FEV1/FVC and increased HbA1c. Conclusion: The findings of the study revealed that, there was a significant decrease in pulmonary functions in the diabetic group. Impaired pulmonary function can be detected in early stages of diabetes and studying the pulmonary function can be easily preformed. Accordingly, screening lungs function should be carried out regularly, as well as integrating in other routine examinations and screening tests. &nbsp

Evaluation of the Incidence of Psychiatric Disorders in Dialysis Patients: Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Psychiatric problems are an important concern in chronic illness such as chronic kidney disease. Knowing the frequency of psychiatric disorders may be helpful for improving quality of life in dialysis patients. This study was performed to evaluate psychiatric disorders in patients with chronic renal failure under treatment with dialysis from February 2013 to February 2014 in Shahroud, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive comparative study, 98 dialysis patients were enrolled and psychiatric disorders were determined by SCL-90-R questionnaire.Results: The results demonstrated that 33 patients (33.7%) had psychiatric disorders, of which 18 patients had major depressive disorder, six had anxiety disorders, six had psychotic disorders and one case having paranoid thoughts, one patient had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and one patient had phobia disorder.Conclusions: Totally, according to the obtained results in this study it may be concluded that nearly one-third of dialysis patients have psychiatric disorders, with most of these being major depressive disorder

Evaluation of the Incidence of Psychiatric Disorders in Dialysis Patients: Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Psychiatric problems are an important concern in chronic illness such as chronic kidney disease. Knowing the frequency of psychiatric disorders may be helpful for improving quality of life in dialysis patients. This study was performed to evaluate psychiatric disorders in patients with chronic renal failure under treatment with dialysis from February 2013 to February 2014 in Shahroud, Iran.Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive comparative study, 98 dialysis patients were enrolled and psychiatric disorders were determined by SCL-90-R questionnaire.Results: The results demonstrated that 33 patients (33.7%) had psychiatric disorders, of which 18 patients had major depressive disorder, six had anxiety disorders, six had psychotic disorders and one case having paranoid thoughts, one patient had obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and one patient had phobia disorder.Conclusions: Totally, according to the obtained results in this study it may be concluded that nearly one-third of dialysis patients have psychiatric disorders, with most of these being major depressive disorder

MRI-based porosity index (PI) and suppression ratio (SR) in the tibial cortex show significant differences between normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic female subjects

IntroductionUltrashort echo time (UTE) MRI enables quantitative assessment of cortical bone. The signal ratio in dual-echo UTE imaging, known as porosity index (PI), as well as the signal ratio between UTE and inversion recovery UTE (IR-UTE) imaging, known as the suppression ratio (SR), are two rapid UTE-based bone evaluation techniques developed to reduce the time demand and cost in future clinical studies. The goal of this study was to investigate the performance of PI and SR in detecting bone quality differences between subjects with osteoporosis (OPo), osteopenia (OPe), and normal bone (Normal).MethodsTibial midshaft of fourteen OPe (72 ± 6 years old), thirty-one OPo (72 ± 6 years old), and thirty-seven Normal (36 ± 19 years old) subjects were scanned using dual-echo UTE and IR-UTE sequences on a clinical 3T scanner. Measured PI, SR, and bone thickness were compared between OPo, OPe, and normal bone (Normal) subjects using the Kruskal–Wallis test by ranks. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated between dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) T-score and UTE-MRI results.ResultsPI was significantly higher in the OPo group compared with the Normal (24.1%) and OPe (16.3%) groups. SR was significantly higher in the OPo group compared with the Normal (41.5%) and OPe (21.8%) groups. SR differences between the OPe and Normal groups were also statistically significant (16.2%). Cortical bone was significantly thinner in the OPo group compared with the Normal (22.0%) and OPe (13.0%) groups. DEXA T-scores in subjects were significantly correlated with PI (R=-0.32), SR (R=-0.50), and bone thickness (R=0.51).DiscussionPI and SR, as rapid UTE-MRI-based techniques, may be useful tools to detect and monitor bone quality changes, in addition to bone morphology, in individuals affected by osteoporosis

Detection of iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP)-labeled stem cells using quantitative ultrashort echo time imaging: a feasibility study

BackgroundIn this study, we investigated the feasibility of quantitative ultrashort echo time (qUTE) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques in the detection and quantification of iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP)-labeled stem cells.MethodsA stem cell phantom containing multiple layers of unlabeled or labeled stem cells with different densities was prepared. The phantom was imaged with quantitative UTE (qUTE) MR techniques [i.e., UTE-T1 mapping, UTE-T2* mapping, and UTE-based quantitative susceptibility mapping (UTE-QSM)] as well as with a clinical T2 mapping sequence on a 3T clinical MR system. For T1 mapping, a variable flip angle (VFA) method based on actual flip angle imaging (AFI) technique was utilized. For T2* mapping and UTE-QSM, multiple images with variable, interleaved echo times including UTE images and gradient recalled echo (GRE) images were used. For UTE-QSM, the phase information from the multi-echo images was utilized and processed using a QSM framework based on the morphology-enabled dipole inversion (MEDI) algorithm. The qUTE techniques were also evaluated in an ex vivo experiment with a mouse injected with IONP-labeled stem cells.ResultsIn the phantom experiment, the parameters estimated with qUTE techniques showed high linearity with respect to the density of IONP-labeled stem cells (R2>0.99), while the clinical T2 parameter showed impaired linearity (R2=0.87). In the ex vivo mouse experiment, UTE-T2* mapping and UTE-QSM showed feasibility in the detection of injected stem cells with high contrast, whereas UTE-T1 and UTE-T2* showed limited detection. Overall, UTE-QSM demonstrated the best contrast of all, with other methods being subjected more to a confounding factor due to different magnetic susceptibilities of various types of neighboring tissues, which creates inhomogeneous contrast that behaves similar to IONP.ConclusionsIn this study, we evaluated the feasibility of a series of qUTE imaging techniques as well as conventional T2 mapping for the detection of IONP-labeled stem cells in vitro and ex vivo. UTE-QSM performed superior amongst other qUTE techniques as well as conventional T2 mapping in detecting stem cells with high contrast

Articular Cartilage Assessment Using Ultrashort Echo Time MRI: A Review

Articular cartilage is a major component of the human knee joint which may be affected by a variety of degenerative mechanisms associated with joint pathologies and/or the aging process. Ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences with a TE less than 100 µs are capable of detecting signals from both fast- and slow-relaxing water protons in cartilage. This allows comprehensive evaluation of all the cartilage layers, especially for the short T2 layers which include the deep and calcified zones. Several ultrashort echo time (UTE) techniques have recently been developed for both morphological imaging and quantitative cartilage assessment. This review article summarizes the current catalog techniques based on UTE Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that have been utilized for such purposes in the human knee joint, such as T1, T2∗ , T1ρ, magnetization transfer (MT), double echo steady state (DESS), quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) and inversion recovery (IR). The contrast mechanisms as well as the advantages and disadvantages of these techniques are discussed

Accelerated Quantitative 3D UTE-Cones Imaging Using Compressed Sensing

In this study, the feasibility of accelerated quantitative Ultrashort Echo Time Cones (qUTE-Cones) imaging with compressed sensing (CS) reconstruction is investigated. qUTE-Cones sequences for variable flip angle-based UTE T1 mapping, UTE adiabatic T1ρ mapping, and UTE quantitative magnetization transfer modeling of macromolecular fraction (MMF) were implemented on a clinical 3T MR system. Twenty healthy volunteers were recruited and underwent whole-knee MRI using qUTE-Cones sequences. The k-space data were retrospectively undersampled with different undersampling rates. The undersampled qUTE-Cones data were reconstructed using both zero-filling and CS reconstruction. Using CS-reconstructed UTE images, various parameters were estimated in 10 different regions of interests (ROIs) in tendons, ligaments, menisci, and cartilage. Structural similarity, percentage error, and Pearson’s correlation were calculated to assess the performance. Dramatically reduced streaking artifacts and improved SSIM were observed in UTE images from CS reconstruction. A mean SSIM of ~0.90 was achieved for all CS-reconstructed images. Percentage errors between fully sampled and undersampled CS-reconstructed images were below 5% for up to 50% undersampling (i.e., 2× acceleration). High linear correlation was observed (>0.95) for all qUTE parameters estimated in all subjects. CS-based reconstruction combined with efficient Cones trajectory is expected to achieve a clinically feasible scan time for qUTE imaging

Bi-Exponential 3D UTE-T1ρ Relaxation Mapping of Ex Vivo Human Knee Patellar Tendon at 3T.

Introduction: The objective of this study was to assess the bi-exponential relaxation times and fractions of the short and long components of the human patellar tendon ex vivo using three-dimensional ultrashort echo time T1ρ (3D UTE-T1ρ) imaging. Materials and Methods: Five cadaveric human knee specimens were scanned using a 3D UTE-T1ρ imaging sequence on a 3T MR scanner. A series of 3D UTE-T1ρ images were acquired and fitted using single-component and bi-component models. Single-component exponential fitting was performed to measure the UTE-T1ρ value of the patellar tendon. Bi-component analysis was performed to measure the short and long UTE-T1ρ values and fractions. Results: The single-component analysis showed a mean single-component UTE-T1ρ value of 8.4 ± 1.7 ms for the five knee patellar tendon samples. Improved fitting was achieved with bi-component analysis, which showed a mean short UTE-T1ρ value of 5.5 ± 0.8 ms with a fraction of 77.6 ± 4.8%, and a mean long UTE-T1ρ value of 27.4 ± 3.8 ms with a fraction of 22.4 ± 4.8%. Conclusion: The 3D UTE-T1ρ sequence can detect the single- and bi-exponential decay in the patellar tendon. Bi-component fitting was superior to single-component fitting

MRI-based porosity index (PI) and suppression ratio (SR) in the tibial cortex show significant differences between normal, osteopenic, and osteoporotic female subjects

IntroductionUltrashort echo time (UTE) MRI enables quantitative assessment of cortical bone. The signal ratio in dual-echo UTE imaging, known as porosity index (PI), as well as the signal ratio between UTE and inversion recovery UTE (IR-UTE) imaging, known as the suppression ratio (SR), are two rapid UTE-based bone evaluation techniques developed to reduce the time demand and cost in future clinical studies. The goal of this study was to investigate the performance of PI and SR in detecting bone quality differences between subjects with osteoporosis (OPo), osteopenia (OPe), and normal bone (Normal).MethodsTibial midshaft of fourteen OPe (72 ± 6 years old), thirty-one OPo (72 ± 6 years old), and thirty-seven Normal (36 ± 19 years old) subjects were scanned using dual-echo UTE and IR-UTE sequences on a clinical 3T scanner. Measured PI, SR, and bone thickness were compared between OPo, OPe, and normal bone (Normal) subjects using the Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks. Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were calculated between dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) T-score and UTE-MRI results.ResultsPI was significantly higher in the OPo group compared with the Normal (24.1%) and OPe (16.3%) groups. SR was significantly higher in the OPo group compared with the Normal (41.5%) and OPe (21.8%) groups. SR differences between the OPe and Normal groups were also statistically significant (16.2%). Cortical bone was significantly thinner in the OPo group compared with the Normal (22.0%) and OPe (13.0%) groups. DEXA T-scores in subjects were significantly correlated with PI (R=-0.32), SR (R=-0.50), and bone thickness (R=0.51).DiscussionPI and SR, as rapid UTE-MRI-based techniques, may be useful tools to detect and monitor bone quality changes, in addition to bone morphology, in individuals affected by osteoporosis